Apron #2, just for you! No, not you....for Kelli!

As promised, I'm going to give you the deets on the apron I made from this post. If you remember, this isn't the first apron I've made. You can see the first one here and it was a lot more time consuming and a lot more difficult to make....but then again, it was my first real sewing project.

So like I said, I made this apron for our student worker who was leaving us to do her student teaching as a Family and Consumer Science teacher. So what perfect gift to give her than an apron made by yours truly :) I gotta say, I was kinda nervous about this because A) I hadn't pulled out my sewing machine in almost a year and B) her and her mom are REALLY good at sewing and I knew mine would have several flaws. I mean, her mom whipped out an elaborate Nemo costume for her nephew like it was nothin! So the stakes were high here folks.

Anyway, I picked up a kit from Hobby Lobby that had all the pieces ready to cut out and sew. What made the apron too cute to pass up were the accessories that came along with it...a pearl necklace to attach and a rhinestone buckle. It was so cute and so is Kelli so I had to get it!

This is what I started out with.

I pinned the flounce to the apron and started sewing. (Sorry for the crappy pics, I had to use my phone.)

After taking care of the edges and attaching all the pieces, I ended up with this.

I definitely had some bumps in the road (remember, it was a year before I had sewn anything) but I managed to take care of it. The box says it only takes about 2 hours but I have no shame in admitting that it took me quite a bit longer than just 2 hours. It may not have been perfect but it was made with love <3

The Office Quote of the Day:

I have made a list of people that I would make out with before I would make out with Michael Scott. A turtle, a fridge, anybody from the warehouse...a wood chipper, Kevin, a candle, and Lord Voldemort. Anyway, happy birthday, Michael.

~Kelly

Tippy Tuesday

Tippy (and I) hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I can't believe we are wrapping up 2010. So here is one last week of Christmas pictures of Tippy. Oh and if you're wondering, Tippy had a great Christmas and got lots of toys, treats, and bones. I guess she wasn't so naughty after all!

Tippy found a nice cozy spot behind my sister's Christmas tree on the tree skirt before her party started.

Tippy's favorite room of her house.....the sunroom....where the bar is.

Tippy Tuesday

Tippy has already received her first Christmas present this year and it's from her new 4-legged friend Molly! It came wrapped along with a card and a really sweet message inside the card. Before we get to the card, I have to show you how cute Tippy looks in her new sweater from Molly.



So here's the sweet message Molly wrote in the card:

Dear Tippy,

My mom and dad bought me this Christmas sweater and for some reason I just can't wear it. I must have picked up some weight over the holidays. I hope you can wear this! I hope we can have a play date soon. I have some new toys we can play tug with and was hoping we can play chase in the backyard. Jack and Squirt are really driving me crazy, bet you're glad to be an only dog.

Woof, woof,
Molly

Sure going to miss you over Christmas!
Wag, wag, woof, woof, woof,
Molly (again)

A toast to Jenny

For those of you that never knew Jenny Cornett, boy did you miss out! Jenny was one of my very best friends growing up but unfortunately God had other plans for her when He took her away from us on August 10, 2003. Today would have been her 30th birthday so just like I did for my 29th birthday, I'm going to list 30 things about Jenny and if you're lucky some funny stories and memories.

1) Everybody loved Jenny, especially my family! I was always either at her house or she was always at mine. If Jenny wasn't around, my Mom or Granny would always say "Where's Jenny?", "Where's Jenny?" I often wondered if my family loved Jenny more than me....haha.

2) Jenny always came to my house after school. One day I had detention. (Side note: This was the only time that I ever had detention. Do you wanna know why I had detention?? Because I was tapping my ruler on my desk in art class. Ridiculous, I know but so was Mr. Hurd.) Anyway, Mom said that day Jenny came to my house, walked in the door and said "Hi Mom, I'm home. Shari's in detention!" Gotta love her!

Me, Jenny, Mom and Chase...our dog.

3) All the fun porch parties at her house.

4) Walking to Speedway from her house to get a snack.

5) Watching her get so aggravated over her mom's boyfriend....now husband.

6) Sitting in her living room and stuffing newspapers in plastic bags for her mom's boyfriend's paper route.

7) I went on the paper route with Jenny and her mom (Merm) one time and one time only. All the stopping to put papers in mailboxes made me a little sick. So we were finally going down route 23 and I stuck my head out the window and puked all down the side of the car! THAT'S why I never went on another paper route with them again!

8) I think of her every time I hear the song Linger....inside joke.

She wasn't happy that I was beating her....haha.

9) We would always go to Wilma's restaurant for lunch. Every time she would order a sandwich with onions, her breath smelled like onions for the rest of the day!

10) 3 words: Our Central boys

11) She was a bit of a matchmaker....and a referee. All the guys thought she was so cool and such a good friend too. They would always open up to her about us crazy girls. She would act as the go-between person anytime we were wanting to date someone, or in fight with our boyfriend, or we were trying to break-up with our boyfriend.

12) Anytime my parents said I couldn't do something or go somewhere, all I had to say is "Jenny's going" and I could go. :)

13) The trip to Gatlinburg my parents took us on.

14) She loved Wheat Thins!

Britt and Jenny at cheerleading camp. You may not be able to see but she actually has Wheat Thins in her hand.

15) That super cool dance move she taught us. We would always do it the dances and thought we were so cool!

16) Hearing Merm (her mom) yell "Jennifer Lynn!" anytime she would get in trouble.

17) She was one tough cookie! She could pin you down and you could forget about getting up unless she let you up. I remember her wrestling a couple of guys in her living room....and winning.

18) Her house seemed to be the place to sneak out of and meet up with boys. I won't mention any names. Ahem!....Angela.

19) She always had perfect hair. Perfect bangs. Perfect ponytail. Nowadays, I don't even "fix" my ponytail. Actually, I don't even look at it. My oh my, have things changed since the 90s.

20) Who can forget that UK bedroom she had where her and Merm put the UK wallpaper up themselves. Parts of it had a hard time staying up.

21) She was one of the first of our friends to get her driver's license. We used to drive around in Merm's T-bird...the one I puked down the side of.

22) I don't know whose bright idea it was to get Christmas pictures made together but we did. I think we were in middle school and I think we had them made at K-Mart. Me, Jenny, Brittany Porter, and Amanda Lauffer. And yes, we were all wearing Christmas shirts. I have the picture but I'm not brave enough to post it on here. Sorry.

23) It was so much fun to have her spotting you in a toe touch. She'd grab you by the waist and as I mentioned earlier, she's a brute! She could lift you up so high and your toe touches were always awesome.

On our way to a cheerleading competition. Ronald was pretty much begging for some action.

24) She loved the movie Boyz in the Hood.

25) One time we got the bright (and illegal) idea to steal street signs. Kids: Don't try this at home. We pulled them out of the ground and carried them through (ironically) a church parking lot to Amanda Lauffer's house. She was carrying one end and I was on the other. The sight of us carrying those big signs had to have been hi-larious. We were laughing so hard, we literally peed on ourselves.

26) She loved country music but we still had some of our all-time favorites that we would jam to, like Knockin' Da Boots, Short Short Man, oh and we can't forget a little bit of Too Short.

27) She was definitely no slacker! She went to Morehead and graduated in 3 or 3 1/2 years.....while working!

28) The last time I talked to her was around Christmas time. She was at her dad's in TN and she said she was coming back home around New Years. We said we needed to get together, maybe we could meet up on her way home from her dad's. Well, neither of us called each other and once again, we took it for granted.

29) For the last 7 years, I've had dreams about her almost every month. In every dream, she's still here with us and I realize I have a second chance to not take her for granted and make up for the time that we didn't stay in touch as much as we should have after she moved to Morehead our senior year of high school. Every dream is exactly the same, just a different place.

30) About a year and half after she died, my Granny passed away. I can't tell you how much my Granny thought the world of her. We were at the funeral home, saying bye to Granny one last time before they took her to the church for the service. I decided to go to bathroom before we went so I walked down the hallway to the bathroom and noticed a random flower arrangement on the floor by the door. I didn't know what it was doing there so I looked at the card and it said "In loving memory of Jenny Cornett." Well that just did me in! It meant so much to me that she was there on such a difficult day and how crazy is it that I was the one that found it.....on the floor.....by itself......while going to the bathroom. I guess she just wanted to make sure that I knew she was there.

Happy 30th Birthday Jenny! I wish you were here today so we could celebrate.

I don't like it when student workers have to grow up :(

Friday was a very bittersweet day. It was sweet because it was our last day of work for 2 whole weeks! BUT we couldn't truly enjoy it because we were saying goodbye to Kelli and Joli, 2 of the best student workers we've ever had! Kelli has been with us for 2 1/2 years and she's leaving us to do her student teaching next semester. Joli didn't work directly with us but she was still a part of our team and would always pitch in if we needed an extra hand. She's been with us for a little over 3 years. These 2 girls are just so cute and have been friends long before working together and we are so sad that they are actually leaving. We always talked about the day they were going to have to leave us but we didn't expect it to happen so soon! I seriously don't think we will ever be able to replace them. Let's just say there was LOTS of crying!

Joli and Kelli

Kelli has Christmas spirit :)

On Wednesday, we had our Christmas party and also celebrated Kelli and Joli and surprised them with some gifts. Joli got a "teacher bag" and gift certificate to get it monogrammed. Did I mention she's getting married? Well she is, so something tells me she's gonna have her new initials monogrammed. :)

Since Kelli is getting her degree in Family and Consumer Sciences (back in our day they called it home ec.), I thought it would be appropriate to make her an apron. Yes, I made it.....more on that later. But seriously, isn't she just the cutest!

To Kelli and Joli.....I cannot explain how much you two are going to be missed. You have been such great workers and it's going to be so hard to come back in January and not see you. I mean, who's gonna help me keep Cindy in line? Or find a new hiding spot for "the egg"? It just WILL NOT be the same without. You had better come and visit all the time so you can keep us in the loop on anything new your lives. I am refusing to say goodbye.....all I'll say is I'll see you later. Love you bunches! P.S. Stop crying.....again.

Tippy Tuesday

What do you think Tippy is thinking here?

A) Last time I checked I'm not a fat, jolly man with a white beard, so why do I have this @&%$* thing on my head?

B) I must act like I'm having fun so that Santa will bring me lots of bones that I can chew up and spit out on mommy's blanket.

C) Does this angle make my teeth look big?

Tippy Tuesday

Since it's December, you get the pleasure of seeing awkward Christmas Tippy pictures from last year. :)

(I've submitted this picture for a photo contest in the Richmond Register. You may see it in the paper on December 24th)

She-Ra....Princess of Power

If you haven't seen it already on Facebook, people are changing their profile picture to their favorite childhood cartoon in an effort to join the fight against child abuse. Who here did not like He-Man and She-Ra? If you were a child of the early 80's, surely you know what I'm talking about. I can't express my love for this show! I had the castle, the sword, the "steed" and these boots of my moms that SO could have passed as She-ra boots. Yes, I was an itty bitty little girl (trying) to walk in my mom's 9 1/2 size boots. Ahhh....the memories seeing this.....



I wanted to be her so bad....and I think I still do. :)

The Office Quote of the Day:

I know a few things about love. Horrible, terrible, awful, awful things.

~ Andy

Tippy Tuesday

We're celebrating another birthday this week. On Thursday, December 2nd, it will be the 29th birthday of Miss Britney Spears!!! Tippy wanted to start celebrating Britney's bday early by sporting her Britney t-shirt that I ordered from britneyspears.com.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITNEY!!!

Tippy Tuesday

My brother had a birthday on Sunday and Tippy wanted to make something special for her Uncle Casey so I sat her down with paper and markers and she made this for him.

Master Bedroom: My first DIY Headboard

Since I'm going to start working on my master bedroom this weekend, I thought I'd give you all a little teaser of what I've already done so far. I took it upon myself to make my first headboard!

I first measured how big I wanted it and I had the fine workers at Lowes cut a piece of plywood to my dimensions. Then I cut out my pattern on paper and traced it onto the plywood.

Once I traced the pattern, I (had my friend) cut it out using a jigsaw.

And I ended up with this!


I bought 2" foam to layer on top. The foam comes in squares or a roll. I read on a blog that the squares were easier to use but after maneauvering these things, I think the roll would have been easier.


I attached the foam using this.


Once it was secured, I went around and cut the excess around the edges.

This is what it looked like after I finished. I didn't worry to much about jagged edges because they would be covered.

Then I took quilting batting and stapled it all along the edges while pulling really taute. (Taute is a fun word to say....or type.)

Then I was left with this.

Now the fun part!...Adding the fabric. It looks a busier than I had hoped but I'm getting used to it. Add a couple of pictures hangers on the back, mount it to studs and TA-DA!!

The Office Quote of the Day:

I think we're spoiled because we don't appreciate the things that we have. You think kids in Africa have chairs? No. They sit in big piles of garbage. Do you think they have copiers? They don't even-God-they don't even have paper and we are spoiled because we throw out perfectly good tiramisu because it has a little tiny hair on it. My point is this: I have seen the light in terms of what we need and it is nothing.

~Michael

I Heart Homemakers

Tonight I went to my first homemaker's class and it was so much fun! My co-worker, Margaret, is a member and tonight was her night to do a card demo. My other co-worker came and our fabulous student worker, whose mom is president of the club. We got to make 2 cards. Margaret demonstrated one and another lady showed us the other one.

These are the pieces to the first card.

We made these adorable little card holders out of binder clips.

The finished card.

The inside of the card.

Me with my card, card holder and envelop.

Kelli and Cindy.

On to card #2!

After putting the pieces together.

The completed card!

How fun! A big thanks to Margaret, Kelli, her mom Ellen, and Cindy for coming and hanging out with us after hours. :) Have I mentioned before that I love my work peeps?

The Office Quote of the Day:

Remember when people used to say "boss" when they were describing something that was really cool? Like, "Those shoulders pads are really boss, man. Look at that perm. That perm is so boss." It's what made me want to become a boss. And I looked so good in a perm and shoulder pads. But now "boss" is just slang for "jerk in charge."

~Michael

Tippy Tuesday

Well, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is my new camera that I got for Christmas last year got damaged in that big ole purse of mine. The good news is I got an iPhone 4 that takes AWESOME pics! Of course I referred to my favorite model, Tippy, to test out its camera.

Guest Bathroom: The Complete Tour

I promised you all a complete tour of my guest bathroom once it was completed so here you go!

I'll start off by showing you the shower curtain I was dealing with. I've had this shower curtain for a couple of years and there's nothing wrong with it so instead of spending money on something that I really don't HAVE to buy (like I usually do), I just used the same curtain. My brother/financial advisor should be so proud! Anyway, back to the shower curtain. The camera didn't pick up the colors real well but it's actually brown and a light bluish-greenish color instead of brown and tan. I usually don't dig traditional prints like this but I LOVE mixing traditional with modern elements.....You'll see what I mean later ;)

Bathroom Before. I like to call the paint color "Builder Blah."

Bathroom After! Muuuuuuch better!


Towel rack before.

Towel rack after. The colors are kinda deceiving. The top towel is actually almost identical to the paint color but it looks like it clashes in the pic. I promise it doesn't!

Just recently I showed you the (not so smooth) process of adding the cabinet hardware. Here it is before.....

And after.....

On with the details! Below are the pictures that I blogged about previously. Click here so you can read about how I came up with the brilliant idea to take pics of my dog peeing and pooping.

You may have seen the blog where I talked about buying my adorable bathroom appropriate wall art.

One essential thing that I think everyone needs to have in their bathroom is a basket or some type of toilet paper storage right beside the toilet.

I hate the feeling of looking over and seeing an empty roll after you've already done your business. It reminds me of a song my mom taught me when I was little.

Stranded, stranded on the bathroom bowl. What do you do when you're stranded and you don't have a roll?

To this day, I still sing this song. Anytime I find myself "stranded" I sing it to the top of my lungs until someone brings me a roll. Then I began living by myself..... Hence, the reason for the toilet paper storage.

Let's move on to the sink area.

What's a guest bathroom without goodies for your guests?

I found this round glass bowl at TJ Maxx and put some necessities for any guests that might come to visit. The only things I bought were the washcloths and the bar of soap. I got the tube of toothpaste in my goodie bag from the dentist. The body wash came in another freebie. The little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and lotion was abducted during a stay at a hotel. Several times a year I have to travel for work and we stay at the Holiday Inn quite often. The number one reason why I love Holiday Inn is they have Bath & Body Works Coconut Lime Verbena products! FYI, the Mariott has really good travel size products too. I must admit that I am that person that if I stay at a hotel multiple nights, I will sweep all of these wonderful bottles into my bag before housekeeping comes so that they will lay out more. :) It's such an easy and cheap way to make your quests feel welcome!

What are those white pieces of gorgeousness in the corner?

Let's take a closer look. These are another fab purchase from TJ Maxx. I just love the waffle texture on these!

Well, that's the complete tour! Yes, I have been in my new house for 6 1/2 months and I have only finished 1 room!.....the smallest at that. I think my next project is to paint my bedroom. I have the color picked out and let me give you a little teaser and say that it is a bold color choice but I'm pretty excited about. Painting a good-size bedroom with 9 foot ceilings.....I'm not so excited about. Help is always welcome ;)

The Office Quote of the Day:

Charles: You know, Michael, I don't need to know everyone's sexual history.

Michael: Well, perfect, because we have now arrived at Kevin and he has no sexual history.